For nearly 11 years, Florence and Virginia...

For nearly 11 years, Florence and Virginia worked at Marmion Way and Avenue 43 in Highland Park, near a depot and concession stand.

They would pass each other several times a day as they traveled along Canyon Vista Drive, which led to the Mt. Washington Hotel on a lavish, 12-acre site at the top of the hill.

In those days, few automobiles were capable of the 1,000-foot-climb up the tortuous road, but a funicular railway with two cable cars, affectionately known as “Florence” and “Virginia,” carried passengers for a round-trip fare of 10 cents. School kids would pay a nickel for a one-way trip to the tiny schoolhouse at the top of the hill, toss their bikes on the luggage rack and coast home.

Highland Park began to blossom into one of Los Angeles’ first suburban developments in the early 1900s, but the only denizens of Mt. Washington were squirrels, quail, rabbits, and a few hunters and picnickers.

The turning point for the hill came in 1909 with construction of the hotel and the Los Angeles & Mt. Washington Incline Railway. The hotel was built on the crest of the hill to take advantage of the panoramic view. It had more than 50 rooms, an amusement hall, a reception parlor and a billiard room.

Robert Marsh, an enterprising real estate dealer, and electrical works manufacturer Arthur St. Claire Perry, builders of the hotel and railway, hoped that people riding the incline would be inspired to buy lots on the hill. The ploy worked, and Mt. Washington soon became an exclusive and highly desirable hilltop off the beaten track.

A local newspaper, the Mt. Washington Eagle, rhapsodized: “A home commanding mountains, city and sea. Sounds magnificent, doesn’t it? For centuries, homes commanding an unobstructed view of mountain ranges, the city and the ocean have been the privilege of only royalty and great wealth the world over. Now, right here in our own Los Angeles, the man of even modest wealth may build his home on a charming, sun-kissed eminence that commands a vista of snow-capped mountains, several cities and the blue ocean--not surpassed on either hemisphere.”

Highland Park at the time was a busy location for filmmaking, and the hotel became a gathering spot for celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, who made a movie there, and other stars of screen and sports.

The glamour of the hotel faded when movie makers moved west to Hollywood. The stars stopped flocking to Mt. Washington, and the hotel closed in 1916.

Three years later, Florence and Virginia, struggling along with obsolete equipment, made their final runs up the hill.

For a short time during World War I, the hotel served as a hospital for wounded veterans and later as a military school.

In 1925, Paramahansa Yogananda, a monk of the ancient Swami Order in India and founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, opened the organization’s international headquarters in the hotel’s facilities.

The building remains a Mt. Washington landmark, along with its high security walls, residence halls and secluded outdoor meditation areas.

The railway that once traveled Canyon Vista Drive is gone, but the mission-style depot--now a private residence and a cultural monument--remains at the bottom of the hill.